It’s difficult to predict what the future holds for Arya, even after reading the Mercy gift chapter from the Winds of Winter. With so few clues to go on, it might be worth considering storytelling logic to gather ideas and then see if the text supports them.

Identity is a huge theme in these books for many characters, but especially for Arya who has had eighteen different names and personas at this stage. GRRM likes to attack the issue of identity from all angles, and each book reveals a new layer to the theme — from characters being reborn with altered selves to Bran inhabiting Hodor. Identity is so closely tied to Arya’s arc it might be a good idea to consider how GRRM might chose to advance her story by furthering this theme — taking Arya and identity to the next level.

With Arya now wearing faces of the dead with the Faceless Men, it seems likely that Arya’s association with new identities would develop through this channel. It’s interesting to consider whose face Arya could end up wearing, especially when returning to Westeros, which would not only further the identity theme — but also provide the most intriguing opportunities from a storytelling perspective. The identity that Arya could adopt which be the most poetic and lend itself to the most fascinating story dynamics would unquestionably be that of ‘fake Arya’ – Jeyne Poole. After examining ADwD and the TWoW sample chapters, the opportunity for Arya to wear Jeyne’s face seems absolutely plausible.

First of all, the Faceless Men of Braavos would need Jeyne’s face which would require her to go to Braavos in the near future. In ADwD, Jon believes Arya has arrived at the Wall. It turns out to be Alys Karstark, but before realising this, Jon thinks his ‘sister’ “won’t be safe” and that “The Wall was no place for a woman, much less a girl of noble birth.”.

His first idea to keep the girl safe is to send her to Braavos with the Iron Bank representative:

“She could return to Braavos with Tycho Nestoris”

Tycho is heading back to Braavos, and there’s logic in sending ‘Arya’ away from Westeros and the Wall to the nearest free city, a relatively safe, civilised place as yet untouched by war. Alys approaching the Wall on a dying horse is a clear parallel with Jeyne Poole, who in TWoW is currently doing exactly the same thing. Even more intriguing is that she is already in the company of Tycho Nestoris, who plans to go to Braavos with Justin Massey once he reaches the Wall.

Stannis nodded. “You will escort the Braavosi banker back to the Wall. Choose six good men and take twelve horses.”

“To ride or eat?” (parallel with Alys on her dying horse)

…

“The king was not amused. “I want you gone before midday, ser. Lord Bolton could be on us any moment, and it is imperative that the banker return to Braavos. You shall accompany him across the narrow sea.”

…

“Oh, and take the Stark girl with you. Deliver her to Lord Commander Snow on your way to Eastwatch.”

In the aftermath of Jon’s stabbing, it’s highly likely the Wall will be more of a dangerous place than ever. Alysane Mormont is accompanying (f)Arya, and it seems very unlikely she will abandon the young girl (whom she thinks is Arya Stark), in a dangerous situation. The most logical choice to make, which might have already been foreshadowed by Jon’s thoughts on what to do with the girl he thought was Arya – is to send her to Braavos.

If (f)Arya is to go to Braavos, she would then need to ‘ask for the gift’ at the house of black and white for the Faceless Men to take her face. From what we know of Jeyne, this again seems completely plausible. Jeyne seemed like a happy girl early on in the books, only to be forced into prostitution and then suffer untold and horrific abuse at the hands of Ramsay Bolton. Although she has escaped, her inner torment isn’t even close to being resolved. In the Theon sample, we realise that Jeyne must continue to pose as Arya – she is caught in the worst identity crisis imaginable. Jeyne can’t shed her past: she’s forced to be someone she is not, someone who has truly suffered. We see how this effects her:

“Jeyne Poole had wept all the way from Winterfell to here, wept until her face was purple as a beetroot and the tears had frozen on her cheeks, and all because he told her that she must be Arya”

This psychological torment is not Jeyne’s only source of pain though. In the sample chapter, her nose is frostbitten..

“When the tip of her nose turned black from frostbite, and the one of the riders from the Night’s Watch told her she might lose a piece of it, Jeyne had wept over that as well.”

Jeyne is continually weeping now, her mind in ruin and her face about to become disfigured. This is a girl who was friends with Sansa, and had probably always imagined herself to grow up as attractive young lady. She says she had always been pretty in ADwD.

So Jeyne Poole has two major reasons to visit the house of Black and White and ask for ‘the gift’, if she found herself in Braavos. This would provide the Faceless Men with a very valuable face, and GRRM with abundant storytelling opportunities regarding Arya. Theon assures Jeyne that ‘no one’ will care what Arya looks like. We saw in the Mercy chapter with Raff’s line “are you blind girl?” that GRRM likes to play on Arya’s name’s, and this would be another such play using ‘no one’…

“No one will care what Arya looks like, so long as she is heir to Winterfell,” he assured her.

The storytelling potential, if Arya were to wear (f)Arya’s face and return to Westeros, is truly fascinating. The possibilities this situation would bring about are almost endless; but Arya appearing as Jeyne and then meeting Sansa would probably be the ultimate in terms of dynamics; and GRRM’s theme of identity would have advanced to yet another level. Jaqen H’ghar posing as Pate showed us that taking a face is a full body glamour rather than just the face, and with the logistics and textual quotes provided here, we see no reason why Arya Stark couldn’t one day become (f)Arya Stark.

Assuming that Aly Mormont thinks Arya is “the only living heir of House Stark”, it seems most likely that Aly would send her to safety — away from Boltons, Others, winter, Stannis and Melisandre etc. Braavos seems like a fair option, and we know of at least one other young princess who was once sent to Braavos for safety. (Of course, since there are strong indications that by this time news of Bran & Rickon’s survival may have filtered to the Mormonts via the Glovers, it’s not at all certain Aly would view Jeyne/Arya in that light per se, though I’d argue she’d want to help get the girl to safety no matter what her status)
As for Jon, if he was conscious he would certainly recognize Jeyne, though I struggle to see why he would choose to send her to the Karhold (still held by Alys’ treacherous relations) or Bear Island . With the Others’ invasion looming and Boltons on the warpath I’d think his first priority would be to get the girl away to safety rather than send her back into the heart of the north. At any rate, in the chaos of his recent assassination it seems more likely that he won’t have the opportunity to identify Jeyne and that she’ll be hustled off to safety *somewhere*…
Anyways… at the end of the day this is all just reasonable speculation based on a handful of textual hints.
We seem to agree on one thing. If Arya takes Jeyne’s face she would be masquerading as a girl masquerading as herself. Arya becoming Arya/Jeyne would be a pretty hefty dose of irony that we see as fitting to the story.

“why he would choose to send her to the Karhold (still held by Alys’ treacherous relations)”

I didn’t say Karhold 😉 I meant the Karstark girl (Alys?) Jon married to the wildling guy, I am not sure where they are right now.

I should have checked the wiki for her name, but that’s what happen when you spend all day on the subreddit, nobody checks the wiki so why should I bother? It seems that the biggest source of information on the subreddit is “remembering something that GRRM said somewhere, sometime”….try having a discussion with such people 😀

If Jeyne does find herself on her own in cold Braavos, I can certainly see her going to the House of Black & White and taking the gift, but I hope she gets a bit of the sweet in GRRM’s planned bittersweet ending.

Ah, got it. I’m pretty sure Alys & Sigorn are still at the Wall, since their wedding was only a few days before the end of ADwD, so that explains our mutual confusion 😉
I wish the poor girl WOULD get a happy ending, but I tend to see most of these secondary characters in peril as falling into the “bitter” half of the equation. But we can always hope!
Cheers- LG

“Although it hath pleased God to hasten my death by you, by whom my life should rather have been lengthened, yet can I patiently take it, that I yield God more hearty thanks for shortening my woeful days.” ~ Lady Jane Grey